Wild Card: What the Title “Like Water for Chocolate” Really Means
People love to indulge themselves in a box of rich, decadent chocolate; however, does one really understand the process to make it? Chocolate, like love, is one that possesses a complicated recipe; it requires extreme delicateness and patience. In the Mexican culture, hot chocolate is made using water, rather than milk, and is heated so that it sits right below boiling.
The complication of this recipe is to keep the water hot enough to melt the chocolate, however cool enough to not boil and burn the chocolate. In Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, Tita is cursed with the unfortunate tradition that the youngest daughter must stay unmarried to tend to the mother as she ages. Through the misery Tita faces from this tradition, she is often pushed to the verge of boiling — just like the water for chocolate; however Tita always manages to cool herself down. Tita bubbles up with scalding anger many times in the novel; she feels anger toward her mother, for refusing marriage and keeping Pedro away from her, and Pedro, for marrying her sister, Rosaura. Throughout the novel, Tita constantly finds herself battling the heat to keep herself from overflowing with anger.
Tita was not brought to the boiling point overnight; it was a series of events that, overtime, built to a condition that Tita could not handle. It all started when Mama Elena denied Tita’s hand to Pedro and soon after announced the engagement of Pedro and Rosaura. “It was then she understood how dough feels when it is plunged into boiling oil.”[1] illustrates her first experience that contributed to raising her temperature. Although Tita was forbidden from marriage, she was still deeply in love with Pedro and Roberto, who she considers her own son. Surprisingly, Rosaura did not have any milk to feed Roberto with after he was born; however, through a supernatural act, Tita soon learned that she possessed milk and nursed Roberto. Mama Elena was soon aware how the baby had strengthened the bond between Pedro and Tita, and rectified this by sending Pedro, Rosaura, and Roberto away from the home to start their own family.
News soon traveled back to the ranch that Roberto, not being able to eat, died from malnutrition. Tita had felt like a mother enduring her own child’s death and “felt the household crashing down around her head.” [2]. Although most of the pain and anger came from Mama Elena’s strict rules, Pedro did play his part in angering Tita. In the middle of the novel, Pedro approached Tita and outrightly disapproved of her decision to marry John, the doctor. Tita lashed out on Pedro and said she had done nothing to interrupt his wedding; therefore, suggesting that he should do the same. After this discussion took place, Tita was outraged and “was literally like water for chocolate -she was on the verge of boiling over.” [3]. Tita was pushed into this state because she had given up so much for Pedro yet received nothing in return; once the time came for her to get married and become happy, Pedro tried to ween and lure her away from the idea by restating how much he regrets marrying his sister. Although Tita was on the edge of boiling over, she controlled herself and cooled herself down by pressing “both her hands against it (her head) hard.” [4]. When it comes to anger Tita always managed to calm herself down, but when it came to the passionate love for Pedro, Tita had difficulty bringing herself back.
Although boiling most often symbolizes anger, this novel also presents it as a form of passion. Tita’s love for Pedro was so deep and vivid that she was often pushed to the brink of boiling and often had trouble cooling herself off. Mama Elena knew this and kept a watchful eye on Tita by not letting Tita out of her sight for too long. Nonetheless, Tita was still able to have passionate encounters with Pedro, one of which took place right in front of Mama Elena. On the night of the quail in rose petal soup, Pedro was not physically engaged with Tita, but he felt the passion enter him as he ate the quail and “.. let Tita penetrate to the farther corners of his being..” [5]; they felt the passion surging through their bodies on a strong emotional level while Gertrudis, on the other hand, carried out the sexual action.
Even when Mama Elena was preoccupied and not watching Tita like a hawk, Tita and Pedro had fiery encounters; one where “their passionate glances fused perfectly that whoever saw them would have seen but a single look” [6]. After Mama Elena’s and Rosaura’s death, there was no longer any restraints on Pedro’s and Tita’s love. In the final scene of the novel, while Pedro and Tita make love, Tita sees the tunnel that John warned her about. She controlled herself at that point, because she didn’t want to die; however, once she noticed that Pedro has succumbed to the heat of the moment and entered the tunnel that took his life, she instantly regretted not following his steps. Tita, not wanting to be alone, started to consume the candles, visualize her loving memories with Pedro, and then held him in a long embrace. Finally, Tita decides to no longer resist the passion and lets herself boil and overflow causing her to die in the midst of her strong, fiery love.
At the beginning of the novel Tita is just introduced to the feeling of becoming hot with anger and as the novel progresses, she discovered that Pedro’s passionate love contributed to the heat. By the end, Tita had endured so much that she no longer cared about control and just decided to let her emotions overflow and bubble over. The vivid Mexican simile “like water for chocolate” truly encompasses Tita’s emotional spectrum as she treks on through life with the cruel family tradition.
[1] Esquivel 6
[2] Esquivel 45
[3] Esquivel 69
[4] Esquivel 69
[5] Esquivel 21
[6] Esquivel 27
